1. Field of Invention
At least one embodiment of the invention relates generally to methods and systems for analyzing and managing facility power and cooling.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Centralized data centers for computer, communications and other electronic equipment have been in use for a number of years, and more recently with the increasing use of the Internet, large scale data centers that provide hosting services for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Internet content providers are becoming more prevalent. Typical centralized data centers contain numerous racks of equipment that require power, cooling and connections to external communications facilities. In modern data centers and network rooms, the increased density of computing equipment used in these facilities has put strains on the cooling and power systems of the facilities. In the past, typical power consumption for each equipment enclosure in a data facility was on the order of 1 kW. With the use of server blades and other high power density equipment in equipment racks, it is not uncommon for an equipment rack to have a power draw of 10 kW or even as high as 25 kW.
Typically, the power consumed by computer equipment is converted to heat and the cooling requirements of a facility are determined based on the power requirements of the facility. Typical data centers utilize air plenums under raised floors to distribute cooling air through a data center. One or more computer room air conditioners (CRACs) or computer room air handlers (CRAHs) are typically distributed along the periphery of the data room, and these units draw return air from the room or a ceiling plenum and distribute cooling air beneath the raised floor. Perforated tiles may be placed in front or beneath racks of equipment to be cooled to allow the cooling air from beneath the floor to cool equipment within the racks. More recently, in-row coolers have been used to draw warm air from a hot aisle in a data center and return cool air to a cool aisle in the data center.
With the increasing cooling and power requirements of computer equipment, it is necessary for a data center manager to determine if there is adequate power and cooling available in the facility when first designing a facility and before new or replacement equipment may be added. Typically, a data center manager may know, or can determine, if the total cooling capacity of the data center is sufficient for the total power draw. However, hot spots in a facility may develop, particularly where high power density equipment is used, and it may not be enough to merely analyze cooling capacity at the facility level. To attempt to identify hot spots, a data center manager may resort to manual temperature measurements throughout a facility and try to implement fixes to correct the hot spots. Such fixes may involve a rearrangement or replacement of perforated floor panels, a rearrangement of enclosures, and/or adding cooling capacity. In any case, these fixes are typically done on a trial and error basis, and while some hot spots may be eliminated, the fixes may cause other hot spots to arise due to a redirection of the cooling air in the facility. This trial and error approach can lead to unexpected failures of equipment, which is unacceptable in critical data centers. To avoid such failures, data center managers typically over design facilities and fail to use facilities to their full capacity.